Salaries for Economics Graduates

The increasingly competitive nature of the graduate job market means that deciding to do a degree requires more than a simple love of the subject. A degree is more commonly seen as an investment: an investment in increased future earnings.

So how wise has your decision to study economics been? There has been a lot of research into this area, with numerous surveys and results. In fact, the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that economics is the second most lucrative degree subject after using anonymised tax data and student loan records for 260,000 students up to ten years after graduation.

Most lucrative degrees, 10 years on:

Degree

Women’s salaries

Men’s salaries

Medicine

£45,400

£55,300

Economics

£38,200

£42,000

Engineering and technology

£23,200

£31,200

Law

£26,200

£30,100

Physical Sciences

£24,800

£29,800

Education

£24,400

£29,600

Architecture

£22,500

£28,600

Maths and Computer science

£22,000

£26,800

Business

£22,000

£26,500

History and philosophy

£23,200

£26,500

Social sciences

£20,500

£26,200

Biological sciences

£23,800

£25,200

European languages and literature

£26,400

£25,000

Linguistics and classics

£23,200

£24,100

Veterinary and agriculture

£18,900

£21,400

Mass communication

£18,100

£19,300

Creative arts

£14,500

£17,900

Base: Median annual salary

Source: IFS and BBC

It is also interesting to note that it is estimated that around 12% of male economics graduates earned above £100,000 some ten years after graduation; by contrast, 6% of those studying medicine or law earned more than £100,000. In terms of females, it is estimated that around 9% of economics graduates earned above £100,000 some ten years after graduation; by contrast, just 1% of those studying medicine and 3% of those studying law did so (Institute for Fiscal Studies).

So, as a percentage, you can expect to get more but how much can you expect to earn? The Complete University Guide has formulated a table which shows average earnings by degree. You’ll be pleased to hear economics comes fourth. According to the Complete University guide, an economics graduate starting work in 2015 could expect to earn £28,019. The average of earnings for all 61 subjects in the survey is £22,855, earning economics graduates £5,164 above the average graduate and £9,876 over the average salary of a non-graduate. So, if that difference is constant for five years, those graduates earned around £49,380 more than a non-graduate.

Adzuna

The job market site Adzuna has a charting tool that compares salaries for an economist (or any other job title you enter) to the national average, and also shows changes in number of vacancies by year. As of June 2018, they are showing a national average of £33,706 versus an average for economists of £49,709.

In Conclusion

All these pieces of research state different starting salaries for economics graduates in different sectors, yet they all highlight that economics graduates can expect to earn above average starting salaries, leading to a faster degree pay-back period and a better rate of return.

Take Home Pay Calculator is a site that shows you take-home pay for a given salary, and how much you gross salary you would need to achieve a given level of take-home pay.